RedBull x The North Face Dual Ascent
Watch the film here
By far one of the strangest and most exciting things I’ve witnessed at a climbing or sporting event!
As a close friend of the youtube channel Bouldering Bobat, I was invited to help shoot a few days of climbing in Switzerland, courtesy of The North Face. “Dual Ascent” was the first event of its kind, and literal years had gone into the planning of a record-breaking multi-pitch route set up the side of the Verzasca Dam, where athletes from all over the world had been invited to race one another in teams.
My crew were there to climb the ‘media route’, a three pitch line set on the dam to the side of the main competition line. Any lingering dissapointment to not be climbing the main route vanished when we arrived and saw the mind-bending scale of the dam wall. So sheer, flat, curving down an immeasurable distance, it made your mind churn and knees buckle. Swifts dove and flickered in the sunshine, casting doubles of themselves as shadows on the face of the dam. Everyone felt a mixture of nausea and excitement.
Due to the organisation of the whole operation, only one camera op could be on the wall with the climbers, Tom and John. I settled with a long lens at the top, following the climbers up the route, with walkie talkies to communicate between us all. Climbing that route was one of the most epic and amazing experiences for the two guys, and it was so much fun being there to capture it. As they started climbing, they quickly realised that although they’d been told the route was easy, it was at least three or four grades harder than they’d expected. What followed was a pretty epic ascent from both of them, determined to climb it in one go.
Back home after four very full days and we decided to make a real push on the edit to get it published as soon as possible. We’d filmed on nearly six cameras and had over ten hours of footage, which I did an assitant edit on to organise and pull selects. I then worked alongside Tom the editor to refine and polish the story, which we both felt very proud of. The video went live less than a week after the event and has to be one of the most fun and whirlwind projects I’ve done so far.
Joe and Tom getting a bit of bouldering done in the evening
